Health Minister Kevin Falcon and Vancouver Coastal Health appear to be at odds over who will fund the proposed development of a 24-hour specialized medical facility downtown for people suffering from mental health problems and addictions.

Falcon told the Courier Thursday that it is up to the health authority to decide whether it wants an urgent response centre, which could treat up to 42 people per day.

“If that is something that makes sense and is consistent with what Vancouver Coastal Health is trying to do as part of their dealing with the mental health challenges, then, yes, they will do it,” Falcon said.

Three weeks ago, Heather Hay, Vancouver Coastal Health’s regional director for complex mental health addictions, said an urgent response centre is needed but funding from the health ministry isn’t available.

“I wouldn’t hold our breath right now,” said Hay, when asked in an interview June 22 when the centre would be built. “Look at the challenging environment we’re in as far as funding for health and our overall health care system, let alone for mental health and addictions and new facilities and new treatments.”

No estimates have surfaced regarding capital costs for such a centre. But Hay said the centre could cost up to $2 million per year to operate.

The call for the facility began six years ago, well before Falcon was appointed health minister in June 2009. The push came from the health authority and the Vancouver Police Department.

In 2008, the VPD released its “Lost in Transition” report that revealed more than 30 per cent of VPD calls in a two-week stretch studied in 2007 involved at least one mentally ill person.

The VPD estimated in 2009 that it spent $9 million of its budget on officers responding to calls involving a mentally ill person. The department recommended in its report that an urgent response centre be built.

Police have said they have no place in the middle of the night to take people suffering from mental health or addiction problems other than a hospital or jail.

The centre would allow each patient to stay up to 72 hours and have access to housing for up to seven days so they could be properly assessed by a medical team.

St. Paul’s Hospital on Burrard Street is often the destination for mentally ill people, and a July 2009 city report revealed between seven and 15 mentally ill patients were seen every day in 2008 at the hospital’s emergency ward.

The average time, from entering the emergency ward to admission for a patient with an acute mental illness, was 48 hours, the report said.

Dr. Eric Grafstein, head of emergency services for Providence Health Care, said wait times for a patient with an acute mental illness has dropped to 24 hours since the city report was written.

But Grafstein said an urgent response centre would benefit mentally ill people and likely free up time for police to get back on the road instead of waiting for a patient to be admitted.

“I wanted them to put it in our hospital but I don’t know what the plan is now,” Grafstein said. “I think it’s a really good idea.”

Falcon joined Grafstein at St. Paul’s July 8 to officially open the hospital’s renovated emergency ward. Falcon said the renovation and expansion of the ward will reduce wait times for all patients entering the ward.

Wait times for the past five years have hovered around 35 minutes.

St. Paul’s anticipates it will treat up to 66,000 patients this year in the emergency ward. The upgraded ward includes a new triage and admitting area, a “fast-track area” for patients with urgent but less serious conditions and a 24-hour diagnostic treatment unit that allows staff to aggressively diagnose and treat conditions such as asthma, chest pain, stroke, heart failure and overdoses.

mhowell@vancourier.com